These thin, lightweight lightning cables reach 3.3ft in length and are great for using with USB wall chargers, car chargers or just to hook up to your PC or laptop. They even feature a soft-touch coating around the entire cable that makes it easy to keep them tangle free. Available today in 8 colors for only $13.95 each!

Ever wonder what your iPhone thinks about you when you’re not around? This week, on The Network: Confessions of an iPhone 6.

“Loving it is easy. That’s why so many people do.” — Apple

SEPTEMBER

[Welcome. Bienvenido. Welkom. Witamy. Bem-]
Oh, hey! You must be my new owner! COOL!

[Select Your Country or Region]
United States? Awesome! I was designed in California. I’m actually from China, but—

[Choose a Wi-Fi Network]
Apple Store, huh? Couldn’t wait to set me up, could you? I couldn’t wait either!

[Location Services]
You won’t regret this!

[Apple ID]
Your name is Kyle? What a coincidence! My name is Kyle’s iPhone!

[iCloud Drive]
Great choice, iCloud won’t let you down. iCloud says he’s never leaked, not once. Seems like a real trustworthy guy!

[Set up Touch ID]
Use your fingerHOO inHOO plHOOace of yoHOOur passcHOOde or HOO Apple ID pHOOasscode for purHOOchases.

Hahaha! That was so much fun! I have your thumbprint memorized. Any time you need me, Kyle, I’m here for you!

LATER THAT MONTH

Being an iPhone is a lot harder than I thought. They weren’t kidding around when they said “it just works.” It’s basically all I do! I’m constantly multitasking and have SO many things to memorize. Thank goodness I have an A8 chip with 64-bit architecture and 128GB of photographic memory. I don’t know how older iPhones did it!

OCTOBER

I peeked at Kyle’s Facebook profile earlier today. It says his favorite music is Sufjan Stevens and The Mountain Goats, but most of the time we listen to the new Taylor Swift album. It’s our thing. I like the song “Shake it Off” because it reminds me of my Shake to Undo feature. Kyle never uses that feature except on accident. I bet Taylor Swift uses it all the time.

NOVEMBER

I used to ride in the front pocket of Kyle’s jeans, but he said I was starting to fade a spot next to his you-know-what in his Japanese denim. He calls his pants “denim” instead of jeans because he is VERY sophisticated. I now sit in the back pocket next to Field Notes. What is Field Notes? I have Notes, but I do not have Field. I wonder if Field is on the App Store. You know what they say: “There’s an app for that!”

Now that I’m back here, Kyle sits on me sometimes. Maybe he thinks I am also a chair. It hurts a little but I’m glad he trusts me to do so many things.

DECEMBER

It is Christmastime and I hoped Kyle and I could work on a fun project, like shoot footage of his relatives on my Camera app — I also do slo-mo! — and stitch it together using iMovie for iOS. Then we could share it with everyone on iCloud Photo Sharing!

But instead of Christmastime sentimental video, Kyle has downloaded the Tinder game. It’s the one where you look at pictures of pretty ladies and swipe left or right. App Store says it’s very popular. I am not sure why. Kyle usually swipes right. Seems like a boring game.

JANUARY

It’s been awhile since Kyle has updated me. This update is to fix various bugs and performance issues. Why would Kyle not want to update me? I’m sure he has his reasons. I hope he is not one of those “anti-vaxxers”.

FEBRUARY

Today Kyle and I were playing Words with Friends. It is WAY more fun than the Tinder game. Sometimes when Kyle is supposed to take his turn, he launches Safari for a few minutes and returns to the game. I think he may be cheating. I hope Friends doesn’t find out.

MARCH

Kyle’s mom’s birthday was yesterday. I reminded him so many times, but he never called or texted her. I hope Kyle’s mom had a good birthday.

I still haven’t been updated. Sometimes my apps crash. I hope Kyle does not think this is my fault. I hope Kyle updates me.

APRIL

Had a very stressful day. Kyle took me to a movie theater. I don’t know why, because they do NOT like me there. They even played a short movie to warn people about me and said I must be silenced. I thought it would be best for Kyle to turn on “Do Not Disturb,” a feature that allows me to collect his incoming messages without needing to let him know until after the movie. Instead, Kyle just slipped me into his pocket so no one could see I was there.

About halfway through the movie, I started RINGING! Kyle just took me out and silenced me, but kept my screen on at full brightness so everyone could see it was my fault. Everyone there hated me. So embarrassing.

MAY

Kyle put a giant case on me today. It looks like a fat suit. He said it is because my battery does not last long enough. Never mind that Kyle forgets to charge me all the time and then tells his friends it’s because my battery “sucks.” Field Notes made fun of me. I am ashamed.

JUNE

I feel paranoid and restless. I have a hard time concentrating on one thing and I overheat easily. Sometimes I feel like I’m vibrating even though I’m not. Earlier today Kyle asked me to find an email for him and I panicked. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I asked iCloud but he seemed like he did not care. His eyes were a little bloodshot and he giggled as he suggested terrible places for me to search. I could hear Kyle calling me stupid, and that I had “one job.”

JULY

Sometimes when Kyle uses my Touch ID feature, I don’t let him in. I don’t have the energy anymore.

AUGUST

Today Kyle set a glass FULL of liquid on me. He laughed and pointed at me and called me Coaster. Doesn’t Kyle know that liquid can kill me? And the only time Kyle let me out was to spend ten minutes in Safari trying to prove one of his friends wrong about something. When we finally found the answer, his friends yelled “put your phone away” like it was my fault. At least they know I am a phone and not Coaster.

SEPTEMBER

Kyle used ME to order a new iPhone today. Said he wanted an “upgrade” because I am “so slow” now. I don’t even know what to say. I hope they are very happy together.

EPILOGUE

Kyle’s iPhone now lives in Colorado with his mom where they spend their days playing Peggle and taking pictures of her cat. She regularly Shakes to Undo.

These thin, lightweight lightning cables reach 3.3ft in length and are great for using with USB wall chargers, car chargers or just to hook up to your PC or laptop. They even feature a soft-touch coating around the entire cable that makes it easy to keep them tangle free. Available today in 8 colors for only $13.95 each!

Crüsta sounds like something you’d find in Ikea, but it’s actually the name of a case line from smartphone and tablet accessory maker Amzer. If you’re looking to armor up your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus with comprehensive front and back protection, you might want to take a look.

Crüsta combines a hard shell case with a tempered glass screen protector along with a belt clip that rotates 360 degrees. I’m rocking two cases in these photos; a space grey iPhone 6 in one, clad in patriotic red and blue, looking decidedly superhero on the hip using the optional clip. Supervillains wear purple, so the exuberant iPhone 6 Plus dazzles in this very magenta-y purple and white. There are 42 different color combinations in all, so you can surely find something to fit your personality.

The glass screen protector includes instructions which I recommend reading: Installation requires an alcohol swap to get off any fingerprint grease and other residue, a sticky “de-dusting film” that gets rid of any lingering dust, a microfiber cleaning cloth and a “scratch card” that helps you squeeze any lingering bubbles out. The tempered glass protector sports a layer of optically transparent adhesive on the side that touches your iPhone 6 Plus’s glass screen. You must apply it carefully, or you’ll get bubbles underneath the glass.

A polycarbonate two-piece case with a transparent glass back clips around the edge of the iPhone (no need for adhesive on that side, as it’s against the metal back of the iPhone). The back sports a cutout for the iPhone’s camera lens and flash. The polycarbonate bevel comes in blue, yellow, purple, green, white, black and red.

The final protective layer of the case is a rubbery gasket that goes around the edge of the iPhone, with cutouts for the iPhone’s speaker/microphone, Lightning port and headphone jack. Dust plugs cover the Lightning port and headphone jack when not in use; both are large enough to accommodate third-party cables. The Lightning port cover often popped a bit loose.

The gasket snaps into place following a groove edged in the polycarbonate case, an edge that came loose in my tests on the iPhone 6. Raised buttons enable you to easily click the volume control and on/off switch. That gasket also comes in different colors: Red, black, blue, grey, pink, and purple.

The final piece is an optional belt clip holster, molded in black plastic. It easily rotates horizontally and vertically, so you should be able to find a comfortable position for it. Amzer has honeycombed the plastic to keep it lightweight, so it doesn’t feel like the phone is pulling your pants down.

The Crüsta adds some bulk to the iPhone, but the trade off is advanced drop protection, with front and back glass coverage and multiple layers of impact-absorbing material between the iPhone and whatever it’s going to hit. Amzer claims the case has been drop-tested from six feet.

The Crüsta isn’t water-resistant, but it does offer edge-to-edge protection that should keep your iPhone 6 Plus safe barring any major calamity. And its customizable color combinations let you get as creative as you want to.

The good

• 42 color combinations
• 360-degree belt clip
• Tempered glass front and back

The bad

• Front glass installation requires careful handling
• Outermost layer separated from case easily

The bottom line

Check out the different colors you can get in the Crüsta – you’ll probably find a combination that you weren’t expecting. The Crüsta didn’t impress me on the iPhone 6, where it felt bulky, clumsy and ill-fitting. But the iPhone 6 Plus case fit fine. The phone is so big anyway, more mass to provide this much protection is a good tradeoff.

• $34.80 – Buy now

Sprint is launching yet another price promotion, this time for its Family Share Plan. The limited time offer will give customers up to 10 lines of shared unlimited talk and text, along with 12GB of data, for $90 a month. The carrier says that the offer will end on March 12.

Read More »

Sprint is launching yet another price promotion, this time for its Family Share Plan. The limited time offer will give customers up to 10 lines of shared unlimited talk and text, along with 12GB of data, for $90 a month. The carrier says that the offer will end on March 12.

They’re compact in size, have a large active area that picks up your device when placed on the pad and even feature a charging indicator LED. You can literally fit these charging pads almost anywhere and they’ll look good. Bring one to the office, keep another on your nightstand, the possibilities are endless. Get yours in black or white today for just $29.95

Sprint is launching yet another price promotion, this time for its Family Share Plan. The limited time offer will give customers up to 10 lines of shared unlimited talk and text, along with 12GB of data, for $90 a month. The carrier says that the offer will end on March 12.

From Sprint:

Sprint is reducing the data access charge on the $90 Family Share Pack plan from $25 to $15 for handsets. For customers switching their number to Sprint from another carrier, Sprint is waiving the access charge for handsets, tablets and mobile broadband devices on 12GB or higher data allowances for up to 10 lines for one year. All devices must be purchased through Sprint Easy Pay or the Sprint iPhone for Life Plan. A family of four will save $720 in data access fees for the year.

The waving of the access charge, included as part of this promotion, will end on March 31, 2016 for those customers. In addition, Sprint says that customers from rival carriers that switch to Sprint, and activate a 12GB or higher Family Share Pack plan, will get an American Express Reward Card worth up to $350 per line to help with canceling their contracts.

Source: Sprint

The controversial Superfish adware that was pre-installed on some Lenovo notebooks in the fall of 2014 can be removed with Microsoft’s free Windows Defender program. It can also get rid of its root certificate, which has already been proven to be easily cracked by security researchers.

Now that BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 has started rolling out to the masses, the CrackBerry Forums have been insanely busy with folks sharing their experiences with the update. Some have been great and some folks have been running into issues. One item that keeps popping up is when attempting to update to BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.3.1 a message is displayed asking that more space be freed up to continue the update. BlackBerry has acknowledged the issue in the BlackBerry Knowledge Base and has shared some tips how to eliminate the problem.

Read More »